Lou Lasher
Lou Lasher is an improviser. He is currently part of APTi, Allentown Public Theater Improv. Improv Training Lou began improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York with a Level 1 class taught by Lennon Parham. He continued at the UCB with Neil Casey for level 2. After which he organized his infamous saturday afternoon pratice session which was open to any improviser and to homeless people when it was too hot or cold out, which lasted nearly a year and held mostly in the UCB Training center. Coaches included: Nels Lennes, David Siegel, Matt Chesmore, Marcus Bishop-Wright, and others. Frequent participants included Sue Smith, Caitlin Brodnick, Greg Bosse, John Ward, Mike Martino, Vince Milosevich, Eddie Brawley, Vicky Kuperman, a dude who goes by "JR", and and untold number of homeless during a particularly hot August. Over that time continued his UCB studies with Lennon again for level 3, and Will Hines, and Zach Woods for level 4. In 2008 he also began studying at The Magnet Theater, where he took level 1 with Mark Grenier. He also took a class at The Peoples Improv Theater in outlining with Randy Pearlstein called Comedic Storytelling: Idea to Outline. At this time he was in a short lived practice group called Macho Peaches with Don Fanelli, Tony Canty, Benjamin Apple, and Erin Roth, coached by Oscar Magallanes, Anthony Atamanuik, and Marcus Bishop-Wright. He continued at The Magnet Theater studying with Louis Kornfeld, Peter McNerney and James Eason for levels 2 through 4, with Armando Diaz for his Back to Basics class and his Sketch writing class, and Alex Marino for his Slacker class. In 2010 Lou began studies with Jeff Michalski, through workshops and classes that Dan Abrams organized. With Jeff, Lou studied both Improv and Sketch, and had a run of shows in both at The Roy Aries Studio Theater. Through these classes Lou met and also studied with Meghan Duffy in her Edge Effect Improv Lab, and had shows and classes at CAP 21 and The Tank. Lou's not really sure how many classes or workshops he's taken with them each, but it's a bunch. He also continued his studies at the Magnet taking level 5 with Armando Diaz,and at the UCB taking level 4 with Shannon O'Neill, level 5 with Curtis Gwinn, two 4 week fives with Andy Secunda and Porter Mason. Around this time "5s" became ASHs and 6s became ASPs, and he took ASHs with Silvija Ozols, and Chelsea Clarke. He was also part of Shannon O'Neill's Weird Ones and Anthony King's Late Night With Harold (both ASPs). Additionally, Lou has studied with Amey Goerlich in 2 classes (or was it 3?) on The Krompf, The Documentary, and The Spokane forms. He studied with Beck Drysdale in 3 classes and a workshop: her scene work class, the extension class, and an Improv to Sketch class. He took a Spolin class with Hal Peller. Lou also took a level one at The Peoples Improv Theater with Steve Soroka. He's continued at The Magnet, taking a class with Christina Gausas and the Monoscene class with Alan Fessenden. Sketch Training Lou has taken sketch classes with the following teachers: Eric Drysdale, levels 1 and 2 at The UCB, Caitlin Bitzegaio, level 2 at the UCB; and the above mentioned sketch classes: with Armando Diaz at The Magnet Theater, an 8 week class with 4 performances with Jeff Michalski plus a workshop on sketch with Jeff mentioned above, and the Improv-to-Sketch class with Beck Drysdale mentioned above. He had a short lived sketch team called DiMaggio. Supercrab In November of 2008 Lou started a practice group that turned into the team Supercrab, which made its debut the following spring in an Under Sherpa Mountaing show, hosted by Sherpa, and teched by Brett White, at Under St. Marks. Also appearing was Tres Hermanos. Lou continued to perform with Supercrab at indie shows in NYC, and very notably did what was probably a 4 minute Harold that blew everyone's mind at The Creek in LIC. Lou also performed with Supercrab at a number of improv festivals: the 2010 Rochester NY Fall Back Improv Festival, the 2010 Providence RI Improv Festival, the 2010 Del Close Marathon in NY NY, the 2010 Up The Creek Improv Festival in Long Island City, NY, and the 2010 Harrisburg Improv Throwdown Festival in both 2010 and 2011. Lou taught a workshop on the Deconstruction form at the 2011 Harrisburg festival. Supercrab was set to participate in the 2010 Black Box Comedy Festival in Atlanta GA, but scheduling issues pervented the team from attending. Instead, Lou performed the set with Rick Andrews and Brian Godleski; and also performed as the guest monologist for Brian's team The Ragamuffins. Supercrab was coached by many people, including: Marcus Bishop-Wright, Amanda Allen Clarke, and Nick Benaquista. Members of Supercrab started as: Sue Smith, Dan Luddy, John Sartori, John Ward, Sarah Van Arsdal, Mike Martino, and Lou. Future line ups included: Kat Toledo, Stephanie Sotille, Rachel Jackson, Kathleen Miller, and Jake Lucas. Lou In 2012 Lou started doing solo improv as the solo improv team Lou. Allentown Public Theater Improv Lou is part of the cast of Allentown Public Theater Improv for the year of 2013. Expect good and big things, because Allentown has an improv scene that is about to blow up in the best ways possible, and Lou expects to help make it so. Other Interesting Facts: Lou has improvised music, mostly "jam band" type stuff since 1980. He loved the Upright Citizens Brigade tv show on Comedy Central. One day, looking on line for a DVD of the show he found out they had a theater in NY. He had no idea what "improv" was, but took a class once he learned there were classes in this-- not knowing what it entailed. Because Lennon Parham is such a genius, he decided he could learn something from it, and it might help him see music in a new light. Instead he really dove into the art form and theater, and his guitar playing is not a shadow of its former self. Lou served in the United States Navy for 4 years and studied Geology minoring in Anthropology at Rutgers. Lou is pretty political, and very far to the left. Lou weighed around 225 lbs in the winter of 2012, and when that came up in a conversation with Anthony Atamanuik, Anthony's concern had an impact. Less than a year later, and one very torn rotator cuff later, Lou is down to 178. Thanks bro! Links: * Lou's UCB Comedy performer Profile page * Allentown Public Theater Improv Category: Performers